Hanger



Dec. 29, 1953 Filed July 2l, 1950 J. C. ROSE HANGER JESS CHOSE INVENTOR.

Patented Dec. 29, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFIcE HANGER Jess C. Rose, North Hollywood, Calif., assignor to J. G. McAlster, Inc., Hollywood, Calif., a corporation of California Application Illy 21, 1950, Serial No. 175,061

1 Claim. (Cl. 248-337) ticular advantage for use in motion picture and It is an object of the invention to .provide a hanger which maybe readily adjustable for suspending the lamp or other supported device at varying elevations above the oor as may be desired. It is another object to provide such an adjustable hanger which is safe and sure in its action, and of sturdy, simple construction.

It is still another object to provide such an adjustable hanger in which the operator mayv lower the suspended article at an automatically controlled speed and stop the descending movement accurately at any desired elevation.

In the drawing of the studio hanger described and illustrated herein as one embodiment of the invention:

Figure l is a side elevation, partly in section, of the hanger;

Figure 2 is an elevational view ofthe upper portion of the hanger taken in the direction indicated by the arrow 2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 3--3 of Figure 1. ,Y

The hanger consists of two principal parts, a tube II and a rod I2 which is vertically movable within and with respect to the tube I I. The tube is secured at its upper end to a head I3 of a set screw I4, by welding or any other means which f will afford an airtight joint between the tube and screw head. The set screw I 4 threadedly en gages an arm I 5 of a pipe clamp I6 for fixing the position of the hanger on a. pipe I'I of the overhead pipe grid system of a motion picture or television studio. The hanger may be moved horiu zontally along the pipe I'I or transferred to some other location on the pipe grid, by rotating the tube II in the direction to loosen the set screw I4, moving the hanger to its new position and again tightening the set screw.

VA. plate I8 is fixedly secured to the lower endr of tube II. This plate is apertured to receive and snugly t the rod I2 and is formed with an upturned cylindrical ange I9 which both acts as a bearing bushing for the rod i2 and affords a means for welding or otherwise securing th tube II to the plate I8.

A second plate 20 is suspended below plate I8 by a bolt 2I which passes through a hole in a left- Ward projection of plate I8 and hangs down-V wardly therefrom. Plate 20 has a hole in its left end through which bolt 2I passes. is supported at this left end by a nut 22 on the bolt 2|. The diameter of the bolt hole in plate 20 is slightly larger than that of the bolt ZI to permit the plate to assume positions at a small inclination to the horizontal. Plate 2U has also an aperture 23 through which passes rod I2. Aperture 23 is just enough greater in diameter than the rod I2 to permit the plate to assume a slight obtuse angle to the axis of the rod. At this angle the plate grips the rod against downward movement, halting further angular movement of the plate about its left end portion. A coiled spring 24 seated between the right hand projection of the plate I8 and the right hand end of the plate 20 serves to urge the plate 29 to its maximum angle of inclination to the rod I2 beyond which it cannot move because of the binding engagement at this angle of the plate and rod.

The upper end of rod I2 has fastened to it by a screw 25 a downwardly anged cup 25 of leather or other exible material, the rim of which engages the inner surface of the tube II. When the rod I2 is otherwise free to fall and begins to fall, the cup 26 tends to maintain a partial vacuum in the void 21 between the cup 26 and lower face of the head I3, breaking the fall of the rod and the lighting equipment or other object at its lower end, to a movement at a slow, safe speed. Leakage of air around the shank of the screw 25 and the cup ange will prevent excessive slow-down or a complete cessation of the downward movement of the rod I2. The void 28 between the tube II and rod I2, if the bushing I9 is machined to form a close iitting sliding joint with the rod, will assist in steadying the drop of the rod I2 by the compressive stress exerted upon the cup 26.

A lamp or other object 29 (indicated in fragmentary phantom fashion at the lower portion of Figure 1 of the drawing) may be supportedly secured to the rod I2 in any suitable manner,

The plate 20 3 preferably so that it can be readily applied to and removed from the rod.

The operation of the hanger is apparent from the above description of its construction. To elevate the lamp 29, it is manually pushed upward. The rod l2 will move the plate 20 very slightly upward against the action of the spring 24, freeing the rod` ,l2 and allowing it to slide freely upwardly within the walls of the aperture 23. When the lamp is at its proper altitude, the lifting pressure is terminated and the weight of the plate 29 augmented by the force of the spring 24 moves the plate again to the binding position and stops the fall of the rodandlamp.

To lower the lamp, manually :press upwardly on the right end of the plate Z6, compressing the spring Zfl and bringing the sidewalls of the. aperture 23 nearer into parallelism with the rod axis, thus destroying the binding action of the plate upon the rod. The lamp begins to fall, but is checkedagalst toolfapid a descent by the leather cup 2E. As it slowly falls theoperatrn1 may cheek its downward movement at vexactly the desired location by stopping upward pressure on plate 29.

As heretofore stated, the invention is notlim- `z ited to lamp hangers or to li'iangers for use in studios, but is applicable to any overhead supported, lvertically adjustable hanger, especially for use with objects too heavyfor manually lcontrolled vertical adjusting movements.

-'I claim:

,A hanger comprising in combination: a tube having means at its uiipelvend for securing it te an overhead Support: a red movable longitudinal- 1y within the tube, and projecting downwardly :means on the upper end portion of said rod including a packing element pneumatically sealingly engaging the inside surface of said tube .for VclQSingr-said pneumatic cylinder at the level of the upper `end portion of said rod, in such manner -asto form a pneumatic chamber, closed at thetop ofvsadtube, and closed at the upper end of said rod, in which a partial vacuum will be :developed upon downward travel of said rod.

JESS C. ROSE.

References Cited in .the Afile `of* this y.patent UNITED .STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 143,765 Hull Oct. 2l, 1873 227,526 Hegarty `May 11, v188'0 829,892 Rielin Aug. 28, 1906 2,051,969 Shastock Aug. 25, 1936 2,467,842 'Marx Apr. 1 9, V1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Numbei` .Country Date 79,045 Germany Apr. '19, 1894 

